Like old times?
by The True One-Winged Angel
Summary: Just a one shot. 50 words of a couple that I personally enjoy thinking about. Enjoy. My summaries suck


Okay, some of these are extreme, I know, but I am trying to see if I have any talent with the "50 words" challenges for pairings.

Tell me what you think. Which ones you liked or disliked. Here's to Lin and Tenzin. And I threw Bumi in their because, hey, five seconds of screen time made him the most looked forward to character of season 2.

Oh, and please don't mind 38. It is long, but I liked writing it.

Enjoy!

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#1 - Bruises

It wasn't personal, Tenzin would always tell people; the Beifong's just had a unique way of showing affection.

#2 - Sneaking

The first time Tenzin tried to sneak into the Beifong residence after dark, Lin sent him flying back out. The times after that were much, much smoother.

#3 - Smile

Katara swore, even to this day, that the first time Tenzin ever smiled in front of her, was when he was introduced to her best friend's newborn.

#4 - Scars

The first time Lin saw Tenzin and Pema walking arm and arm, she ran and didn't look back. The next day, she received the two scars on her right cheek. Her mother yelled, asking if she'd been trying to get herself killed. Lin didn't respond.

#5 - Oogi

The first time Lin rode on Oogi, she screamed in Tenzin's ears and wouldn't let go of his arm until they landed back on the island. The ringing in Tenzin's ears, however, made the experience more painful than romantic.

#6 - Touch

In public, neither would make any move to make physical contact with the other. In private, however…

#7 - Tears

When Tenzin showed any sincerity or empathy for someone, Lin would not hesitate to laugh at his expense. The day Avatar Aang passed, however, Lin held him close, and cried alongside him.

#8 - Mother

Sneaking out of a house where your mother could feel every movement you'd make before you did made Lin a very, very nervous teen.

#9 - Smirk

Toph felt her daughter leave the house to go out for the night. She did not need to guess where she was going, or whom she was going to see. She just smirked and fell back asleep.

#10 - Baby

"Hey, Tenzin, if we had a baby girl, what would you name her?" She loved it when he began to sweat.

#11 - Hair

Tenzin was glad, just a week before, he'd gotten his head shaved and his airbending tattoos placed in return. Otherwise, he might have had to suffer Lin's sudden interest in 'hair makeovers.' Luckily for Tenzin, his brother was there to compensate for himself.

#12 - Droppings

Bumi just laughed and laughed, as he looked between the two teens that appeared to be covered in, seemingly, mud, "And that is why I warned you two that the bison caves are _not_ the best place for some alone time!" He continued to laugh and laugh and laugh at their expense.

#13 - Time

Two months ago, Avatar Aang passed away. A month ago, Lin got angry and said she never wanted to see Tenzin again. A week ago, Pema confessed to Tenzin. Yesterday, Tenzin was looking at the necklace his mother had helped him make for his for his first love. He held it tight, then tossed it into Yue Bay. Today, he moved on, but the pain remained.

#14 - Fault

"Just so you know, it's your fault Katara caught us." "(Sigh) Leave my mother out of this…"

#15 - Doctor

"My mommy says I can't play doctor with you anymore, Tenzin."

#16 - Names

They didn't have cute, adorable nicknames for each other while out in public. One was serious, the other was proud. However, when they were in private, she'd lean up to his ear, smile, and whisper, "So, what do you have planned tonight, Twinkle Toes?"

#17 – Teaching

Lin remembered trying to teach Tenzin how to earthbend as kids. Her teaching methods had been similar to her mother's. Send a boulder at her student, blindfolded, and see how he reacts. Avatar Aang, years ago, had effortlessly dodged the incoming boulder. Tenzin had more trust in his teacher. The results were…painful. Safe to say, he wasn't an earthbender.

#18 - Apology

Lin never apologized for her teaching methods to the battered and bruised Tenzin. But he didn't expect her too. It was just how she was. And he wouldn't have changed that about her at all.

#19 - Wise

Tenzin remembered very true words from his father, years and years ago. To keep a relationship steady, alive and working, remember these words, "You're right, honey, I'm sorry." It worked. For a time.

#20 - Jail

"So, uh, Pema…I am _really_ sorry about this. I did _not_ expect Lin to do something like this." "You're just lucky you're cute…"

#21 - Death

The day Toph Beifong passed away, four years after Avatar Aang passed away himself, Tenzin came up to Lin, alone, and offered his condolences. She hugged him and did what she hadn't done since she was a child. She cried. And he just held her tightly.

#22 - Times

"Like old times?" She asked, as he looked down her and replied, "Like old times." _If that were the case_, she thought with a smile, _we should find an empty closet quick before I have to get back to duty_. Of course, she did not say that, but she smiled nonetheless back to the airbender before glancing back out towards the stadium.

#23 - First

The first time Lin kissed Tenzin, it felt like a hurricane passed through the street, causing both satomobiles and people too fly in random directions. Lin just smiled at his rare, embarrassed look.

#24 - Second

The first time Tenzin kissed Lin, the ground shook and brought down the entire restaurant they were in. Lin smacked him in the chest afterward; for embarrassing her.

#25 - Pain

Toph Beifong was not a mushy girl. But even she looked forward to the day when Tenzin brought Lin home and announced their engagement. It was to her surprise when she had to instead help mend a broken heart.

#26 - Rain

The day Tenzin and Lin had their first date, it rained. Neither believed this was ominous or foreshadowing.

#27 - Drinking

What happened the night they went to the Shady Dragon, stayed at the Shady Dragon.

#28 - Sleeping

"I told you Lin I was meditating!" "You were sleeping! Admit it!" "No! I. Was. Meditating!" "Sleeping!" "Meditating!" "Sleeping!" "Meditating!" "Actually, I think you were sleeping, Tenzin." "Stay out of this Bumi!"

#29 - Comedy

"Please, Bumi, stop," Lin begged, as Bumi just smiled more. "I heard that Uncle Sokka was into large women. I mean, I heard his first girlfriend was the size of the moon!" He snorted, as Tenzin continued to glare at him and Lin shouted, "Boo! Boo!" Bumi's smile, if possible, stretched even further. "Oh come now! It could have been worse! You didn't have to BUMI!" The next thing he remembered was flying in the air towards the sea, whether by airbending, earthbending or some weird mix of the two, he wasn't sure.

#30 - Alone

The day Tenzin left for the Fire Nation capital with his father for, what he called, 'political training', Lin found herself with more free time on her hand. She could practice her earthbending, sleep in, not have to babysit a teenage airbender from dusk to dawn, and she missed him already.

#31 - Denial

The day Tenzin returned, his brother and sister tackled him to the ground, as he asked the only one left standing, "What is up with these two?" Lin just shrugged, "I don't know. They missed you or something. I didn't really care." She turned her back to him as his siblings hugged him tightly. "Thanks. You really know how to make a man feel welcomed back Lin." He couldn't see her blush with a smile.

#32 - Proud

"Does your mom ever embarrass you?" A young Tenzin once asked, as his closest friend gave him a strange look in return, "My mom is the police chief and the strongest earthbender ever," she said this as if it answered everything. Tenzin looked puzzled for a moment, before shrugging, "Good point."

#33 - Gentle

Sokka once told Tenzin that men liked gentle women. His wife then smacked him over the head with a fan and replied, "I guess that doesn't make you a man, does it?"

#34 - Need

"I don't need you!" Lin walked away and never looked back. If she had, she'd have seen Tenzin's stunned face. If she had turned back, he'd have seen her tears.

#35 - Mmhmm

"You know, my birthday's coming up," she said tiredly, resting her head against the back of a tree, eyes closed in the shade. "Mmhmm," Tenzin replied, sitting cross-legged in front of said tree, meditating. "I was thinking we could do something fun. Like go to the Shady Dragon or somethin'." "Mmhmm." "You know, this will be my first time going out on my birthday without a party. Should be nice, you know? Just the two of us." "Mmhmm." Lin opened her eyes, leaning forward as she glanced at the monk, annoyed, "Tenzin, I'm pregnant." "Mmhmm." Three, two, one – "WHAT?" She just smirked at his expense.

#36 - Safe

"If Lin comes in here, asking where I am – DON'T SAY ANYTHING!" "You forgot your anniversary again, didn't you?" Pause. "Can't she feel vibrations in the ground? Hiding under a table won't help you Tenzin." "Kya, right now, I don't think flying to the South Pole could help me!"

#37 - Table

In case anyone was wondering, no. The table did not save him.

#38 - Origin

_Jinora was born today_, Lin quietly reminisced as she walked out of her office. It was the news of the city – the first potential airbending child born since Tenzin himself. Lin knew she should have been happy that the airbending line would continue on. But, and she would deny this if anyone had the gall to ask her, she still had that odd thought of what it would have been like had it been _her_ who had that child today.

She drowned out that thought, however, as she looked over to two little boys, sitting quietly in the police station. One was a small, somewhat big boy, who looked confused but interested in his surroundings at being in an actual police station. The other boy, who appeared to be a year or two older then the pudgy one, just sat silently, holding on tightly to a large red scarf around his neck.

She knew what had happened to them - more specifically to what had occured to the older one, rather than the younger - and could vaguely hear from across the room and the younger boy asked, "Hey Mako, when are mom and dad gonna be here?" The boy appeared to not have heard him, however, the same blank, distant look remained on his face. The younger boy just shrugged and continued to look around the station.

Lin walked away quietly after that.

#39 - Awkward

Lin found out when she was very young she couldn't swim. Apparently, it ran in the family. When she felt two arms holding her up for air she turned to see her savior. She wasn't blind, and her kiss on the cheek went to the right man.

#40 - Talents

Apparently, Tenzin thought, women love the tsungi horn. He was glad he hadn't inherited his father's level of…_talent_, for it.

#41 - Discordant

They were not the most harmonious couple. They fought, they bickered, they disagreed – but whether it was sneaking a rose through the fourth floor window of her office with airbending, or cutting out of work a few minutes early too spend time with the one she loved; it was the small things the two of them did for the other that made their love unquestionable.

#42 - Snow

Toph hated the snow. This trait was passed to her daughter. It was cold, wet, and she couldn't feel the earth with it. But when she felt a sudden gust of wind send an entire tree amount of compact snow on top of her head, with only one airbender within a hundred yards of her, she knew it was on.

#43 - Remembrance

"-And so I say, 'you didn't have to BUMI!'" The three children roared with laughter at their Uncle's story, as Bumi wiped a lone tear from his eye and looked at the two annoyed adults beside him, "By the way, _Tenzy_," the children began to snicker at, what Tenzin believed, was a _very_ immature nickname, "which one of you sent me flying after that?" Bumi didn't like the wicked looks he received from the two benders.

#44 - Mine

Pema wasn't the first women to go after Tenzin while he was still with Lin. But, Pema was the first to come out unscathed.

#45 - Flirt

"Uh, Uncle, I highly doubt 'you make the ground shake beneath me,' is a very good compliment."

#46 - Before

Katara confronted Tenzin just before his wedding day, asking him if he was sure that Pema was the one he loved. He understood what she was actually asking, and he nodded his confirmation. Katara just smiled, hugged him tightly and joined the rest of people awaiting the ceremony. Tenzin never regretted marrying Pema. She was a wonderful woman. To that, no one could deny. However, as is human, he did wonder, perhaps once or twice while they were dating, what might have happened had he never met Pema?

The day after the wedding, Katara bid her farewells to the happy couple and headed south to the Southern Pole, where the new Avatar had been located.

#47 - Chaos

On their first date, Tenzin lost Oogi, Lin ripped her dress, their food caught on fire by the cook, who believed it was still edible and decided to serve it to them anyway. A satomobile's alarm wouldn't go off as they attempted to eat the black food, and if it all couldn't get worse, it began to rain as they made their way through the city. Hiding under a bridge, drenched and dripping, the two looked out towards the rain then back at one another's soaked faces. They began to laugh together. Sitting down under a dry patch of earth under the bridge, the two watched and waited for the storm to end; Tenzin's arm draped around Lin's shoulder the entire time.

#48 - Info

"Come on Tenzin! Tell me about Beifong and you!" "I do not believe that is any of your concern, Korra." "Come on, just a little. What was she like? Was she a boulder-brain like she is now." "Korra, I am serious. No more." "Ahh. Katara, anything." "Hmm. Well, Tenzin did mention that she could do something with her tongue-" "MOTHER!"

#49 - Broken

Lying on the bed, injured and brusied from the mechatank, she couldn't douse the thoughts of what her officers were going through at the moment or the feeling of how pitiful she must have looked as Tenzin looked over her injuries.

#50 - Third

The third time the Lin and Tenzin kissed, it was with each other fully aware, fully _allowing_. They kissed, and the two felt the earth shake around them. And this time, it wasn't because of bending.

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Alright, that's it for me. Just trying to find a rhythm here and I thought that the fifty word challenge would be a nice thing to attempt. I don't know how they are. I hope you all critic on my ability or lack of in these word-pieces, and hope to hear which ones you liked or disliked. Personally, the last ones or so were meh to me. But who knows?

Review and write your thoughts to your heart's content.

May do another with another couple. Maybe Mako and Korra. Or maybe something else. Either way, I am cleaning up another thing I have been working on for a LONG time, so hopefully I can finish that off sooner than later.

From TOWA.


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